Editorial: What budget surplus?
There's economic news in the country that has
made the Clinton administration joyful. But it should be a
green light to the working class to fight for more benefits for
all its members.
The Budget Office estimates that there will soon be a
federal budget surplus for the first time since 1969. And
that's even though $250-300 billion of the budget goes toward
interest payments on the so-called national debt of $5.4
trillion.
Remember how that debt came about. Most is from the cost of
the military and of past wars. It grew tremendously during the
Reagan-Bush years, when super-high arms outlays combined with
big tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy added about $3
trillion. In a capitalist society-which already favored the
capitalists-this was another big giveaway to the rich.
While Congress and the White House gave away trillions to
the rich, they took it away from the working class, both
employed and unemployed workers, including those on welfare.
This ripoff of the working class-the class that produces all
the wealth in the first place-accelerated during the Clinton
years. Now there are millions of people newly deprived of food
stamps or disability payments, or forced on workfare to toil
for slave wages, forced to choose between keeping a roof over
their heads or food on their tables.
In the midst of this suffering we hear the good news that
the budget will be balanced. How? Because more workers have
been employed-albeit at lower wages-and have been paying their
income taxes.
Newt Gingrich already wants to use this tax income supplied
by workers to eliminate more taxes for the wealthy. But there's
a far better use. Its time to fight to first restore the cuts
to social welfare programs, then to improve these programs.
The workers produced this surplus. It belongs to the working
class. And the best way to help the whole class is to help its
members with the lowest income. This will pick up all the
rest.
Unfortunately, it won't happen just because it is right and
fair. It will take a struggle like the one the workers and
unemployed in France are waging to win benefits for unemployed
workers there. But one thing everyone knows now for sure is
that the money is there. The fight is only over who gets it-the
working class that produced all the wealth or the capitalists
who steal it.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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